Cape Town – most southern part of Africa

19. November 2016

We only have one word for Cape Town: astonishing. We have never been positively flashed like that from any other country or city so far. I could go on and on for hours about how wonderful this town and its environment is, how heartwarming the people were and how exited we were to spend our holidays there. In fact, Cape Town is a city where we would imagine living in. I guess we won’t get a thing done because we would be talking to taxi drivers, shop keepers etc. all the time, but our life would be pretty chill!

So where should we start…..

First of all, we would recommend everybody to get a local simcard at the airport. They have some with data volume only but it’s always good to have some cash on it for calls as well, in case you need to order UBER.

Going by cap is relatively easy and cheap in Cape Town. A 30-min ride from the airport to the city center is about 200 RAND (15€). Taxis are easily called by phone or via the UBER app. Usually the taxi drivers are very talkative and they always have some local tips for you. Just ask them – they really like to talk about the beauty of their country.

Sightseeing

Cape of Good Hope

A must! Although a lot of people discouraged us (for whatever reasons) not to go there, we can only recommend visiting the Cape! We organized a taxi driver in Simonstown. Steve was about 70 years old and a retired park ranger of the Cape. He knew everything. Steve is one of those guys you will never forget in your whole life. He was funny, full of joie de vivre and absolutely loved his country. He taught as a lot of things about the flora and fauna and the mentality of the people in this country. The Cape itself is only reachable via car or bus (no public transport). It’s impossible to walk there, because you need to pass approximately 5-10km of protected landscape. The entry (including the car fee) is about 125 RAND per person. Once you have reached the Cape, you can either hike to the most southern point of it (2h) or take the staircase (20 min) up to the lightning house. We choose the staircase – but it’s very important that you watch out for the baboons. They are everywhere! They are normally harmless but you should never feed them our touch them. The view up to the lightning house is simply breathtaking, having the Atlantic ocean on the right and the Indian ocean on the left side.

Simonstown & Boulders Beach

You wanna see penguins in their nature? Go to Boulders beach. It’s only an hour away from Cape Town, if you take the train to Simonstown. After a quick 20 min walk you will reach the Boulders beach. Entry is about 10€, and a lot of tourists are usually visiting but nevertheless, it’s an amazing adventure. Back in Simonstown you will find many good restaurant options and if you are lucky, it’s time for the local market.

Table Mountain

The Table Mountain with its lion’s head is one of the most famous attractions in cape town. Although it’s a mountain, its easily reachable via Hop on hop off bus or the public city bus. The top can be reached via cable car. Unfortunately, we were not able to go there because they closed it due to the wind. There is always the option of walking up there, but we don’t recommend it if you are afraid of snakes. Nevertheless, the view is also enjoyable staying at valley station.

Sea Point

Sea point is a very nice area with colorful small houses, shops and an adorable promenade. In times of the apartheid, only white people could live there.

Waterfront

this was the former harbor-area of Cape Town. Unfortunately overcrowded with tourists, but the promenade is very beautiful! We took a bottle of wine and chilled on a bench.

Wine tour

If you are in South Africa, please make a wine tour, it will be the best experience ever, I ‘ll promise. There are a lot of provided tourist tours but we would totally recommend you going by yourself and book a cap for the day. Its only 50-70€ to Stellenbosch and the experience will be so much more authentic and local. There are several vineyards in South Africa, we have checked out 2:

Constania

This vineyard is very touristy. The root cause for that is due to the hop on hop off bus station. Nevertheless, we had a very funny experience there. Our sommelier was super nice and treated us very well. Testing wine in south Africa is relatively cheap, you can get 5 glasses for 70 RAND. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any seating possibilities at this place, which was desperately needed after 5 glasses. Good thing we were allowed to keep the glass.

Stellenbosch

For those of you, who don’t know Stellenbosch – this is the heart of the south African wine-growing areas. The famous Pinotage is from this aria as well. We have tested several vineyards and those 3 are our favorites:

Asara

We were treated like princesses! Absolutely lovely, this place. The wines were really good and affordable. We didn’t expect that because the place itself looks very fancy. The tasting costed 50 RAND. We can recommend the Sauvignon blac and the pinotage Rose.

Beyerskloof

the home of the pinotage – its not just a slogan, it is the home of it. The offered pinotage was the best pinotage we have ever tasted. The pinotage is very flexible: we had a pinotage burger for example in the family owned restaurant, very delicious.

Kannonkop Estate

The most funniest wine-tasting we have ever been to. The guy offered us the tasting for free because he thought we behaved like a reality show. Nice to know dude haha. This vineyard only offers red-wine. Although they have thank god one rose in their product range. The location is a little bit further north of Stellenbosch but worth a visit.

Food & drinks

You won’t starve in Cape town, nor dehydrate. The food and drinks very usually everywhere very good. Our favorites were located in the center of Cape Town, in the Long street – the party place. You can find one pub after another. Prices for food and drinks are not comparable to European prices. A bottle of wine in a club is about 20€. A lot of pubs offer special deals like free beer pong. It will never get boring in this aria, there are so many places with all different kinds of music.

Speaking of safety: We have been asked a lot if we felt safe (2 women traveling). We can only say YES! We definitely felt safe. We never had any problems anywhere, but of course, it’s different when you visit the townships.

Surfing

If you are into surfing, please go to Muizenburg beach. It’s one of the best places I have surfed so far. Muizenburg is approximately 30 min outside of the city center, located at False Bay (Indian ocean). A lot of locals go there to surf as well.

This article could go on and on because we have experienced so many amazing and mind-blowing thigs while visiting Cape Town. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Although a lot of people are living under very poor conditions, they would never complain. They worship live over there and are actually happy about the little things. This mentality is just admirable and we can learn so much from those people.

We couldn’t find the scene in South Africa. There is an annual pride and homosexuality is kind of accepted. Talking to locals we noticed though, that two women are most likelier to be accepted than two men.